258 



Palma Christi Bean — Peach Trees — Note Book. Vol. III. 



Pulina Christi Bean. 



The Southern Cultivator contains a com- 

 munication from VV. I. Anderson, of Marshall 

 county, Tenn., on the culture and manufac- 

 ture of the Castor Bean, from which we 

 make the following extract: — It grows best 

 in gently rolling beach and poplar land, and 

 there is no crop I have ever noticed, that is 

 so much improved by manure as the Palma 

 Christi. It should be planted as early %i 

 March as the season will admit, as we do 

 corn, in checks 6 by 8 feet distance in rich soil, 

 allowing only one stalk at each check to re- 

 main standing. Three or six beans are plant- 

 ed in a hill to insure a good stand. In thin 

 land so great a distance should not be given. 

 It requires about the same culture as corn, 

 and produces from 10 to 25 bushels per acre. 

 I have heard from good authority that 50 

 bushels have been gathered from one acre. 

 It begins to ripen the last of July, and con- 

 tinues to ripen and grow until frost. It is 

 gathered by cutting the pods as they ripen, 

 which are thrown on sl'^ds drawn by horses. 

 A yard is prepared, called a popping yard, 

 made like one for drying brick. The firmest 

 ground of course will be chosen ; its size will 

 be in proportion to the amount of land in cul- 

 tivation, upon which the pods as they are 

 taken from the stalk will be laid. A few 

 days of sun will fr;>e the beans from their 

 covering; the hulls are cleaned from them 

 by a fan, such as are used for cleaning wheat. 



For pressing the oil, I use wrought iron 

 screws, stocked in the manner of stocking 

 screws for pressing cotton. 



I concur with you in the opinion that farm- 

 ers might employ a portion of their grounds 

 to good advantage in the culture of the bean, 

 for the following reasons: 



1st. It should be planted before it is proper 

 to plant corn or cotton. 



2nd. It could be worked before corn or cot- 

 ton would need working. 



3d. The gathering would be between the 

 laying-by of corn and the picking-out of cot- 

 ton ; besides, it greatly improves the produc- 

 tion of other crops that are planted after it. 

 Whether it be the shading of the ground dur- 

 ing the warmest part of summer, or the effect 

 of a change of crop, I cannot tell, but the in- 

 crease of the crops planted after the Palma 

 Christi on my plantation, has been at least 

 25 per cent. 



For the Farmerg' Cabinet. 



Decay of Peacii Trees. 



I have observed several communications in 

 the Farmers' Cabinet, respecting the decay of 

 Peach Trees. Several yars' experience has 

 satisfied irie that the injury is occasioned by 

 a fly depositing its eggs in the tree, and the 



larvae after being hatched working at the 

 root of the tree. My remedy is to remove 

 the earth from about the trunk of the tree so 

 as to form a basin, then pour a bucket full of 

 boiling water around the tree — say in the 

 ninth or tenth month. I have for the last ten 

 years found this a complete remedy for both 

 the worm and the yellows. I know an orch- 

 ard of trees treated in this way each fall, all 

 of which are thrifty at the present time^ — 

 another lot, planted at the same period, but 

 which did not receive the same treatment, 

 soon perished. 



B. H., An Ohio Farmer. 



Tbe Agriculturist's Note Book. 



No. II. 



Original and Selected. 

 LUCERNE. 



The Rev. H. J. Close, in a communication 

 to the Bath Agricultural Society, gives a very 

 interesting account of the culture and pro- 

 duce of a small piece of lucerne, which to use 

 his own words "shall have at least the merit 

 of exactness, however unworthy in other re- 

 spects." He says, April 30, sowed half a 

 pound of lucerne in a seed-bed, the drills be- 

 ing drawn with a garden hoe, at six inches 

 distance, and covered with a rake. Septem- 

 ber 24 following, took up the plants, cut the 

 top roots off, leaving each root about three 

 inches long, and transplanted them into a 

 piece of good mixed soil land, containing two 

 roods, sixteen rods, leaving room for plough- 

 ing the intervals, as it was planted two feet 

 two inches from row to row, and ten inches 

 from plant to plant, in the row. The next 

 season it yielded four crops, wh'ch were cut 

 and given to the horses in the yard, but as no 

 account was kept the weight cannot be ascer- 

 tained ; but the next year it was all weighed, 

 and a very accurate account kept of the pro- 

 duce, which was as follows: — 



Crops. Began Cutting. 

 1st. May 17. 



2d. June 28. 



3d. Aug. 2. 



4th. Sept. 7. 



5th. 



Cut and fed off 

 Total amount 



Finished. Produce lbs. 

 May 25. 3.442 



July 15. 5,0(i4 



Aug. 14. 4,831 



Sept. 14. 3,698 



1,550* 



18.585 1 b«. 



or eight tons six hundred and twenty-five 

 pounds of green food from somewhat more 

 than half an acre. At the time this account 

 was furnished, May 17 of the following year, 

 the lucerne, though the spring was backward, 

 was two feet high. 



[liucerne, unless sown in drills and kept 

 clean from weeds, wiil never answer to the 



* The fifth crop was not half of it cut, as the frogt 

 sol in so early, but the part tliat was cut produced 775 

 pounds, and the part which was ted is set down at tbe 

 same, making 1550. 



